The AI data center buildout is minting money for companies most people have never heard of. Eaton and nVent Electric, two industrial firms specializing in power management and thermal solutions, are posting revenue numbers that would make some tech companies jealous.
Eaton pulled in nearly $27.4 billion in revenue for fiscal year 2025, a 10.3% jump year-over-year, with net income landing around $4.1 billion. nVent, the smaller but faster-growing sibling, hit close to $3.9 billion in revenue, representing a 30% year-over-year increase and roughly $710 million in net income.
The numbers behind the data center gold rush
nVent’s Q1 2026 results were particularly eye-catching. The company reported organic sales growth of 34%, with infrastructure sales surging nearly 80% year-over-year. Its backlog hit a record $2.6 billion, essentially a queue of future revenue waiting to be recognized.
Eaton’s story is equally compelling, though on a larger scale. During Q4, orders in certain segments surged approximately 200% year-over-year. The company has also been making strategic moves to capture more of the cooling market, completing its acquisition of Boyd Thermal to bolster liquid cooling capabilities.
Why crypto investors should pay attention
Neither Eaton nor nVent has any direct involvement in crypto protocols or blockchain projects. These are traditional industrial companies through and through.
Companies like Iris Energy and Core Scientific have been converting or co-locating mining facilities to serve AI workloads, partly because the revenue per megawatt from AI hosting can dwarf what Bitcoin mining generates. The infrastructure investments Eaton and nVent are making essentially grease the wheels for this transition.
Market outlook and what to watch
Wall Street consensus projects nVent’s FY 2026 revenue at around $4.98 billion, which would represent another 27.9% year-over-year increase. The company’s net margins of approximately 18.2% in FY 2025 suggest it’s not just growing for growth’s sake, but doing so profitably.
Eaton handles power distribution from the grid level down to the rack. nVent manages the thermal challenges that come with cramming ever more compute into ever smaller spaces. Together, they cover the two biggest bottlenecks in data center expansion: power delivery and heat removal.
The risk, of course, is that AI spending eventually cools off. If hyperscaler capex plans get trimmed in a recession or if AI investment sentiment shifts, companies like Eaton and nVent would feel it in their order books. But that record $2.6 billion backlog at nVent provides a meaningful buffer, essentially pre-sold revenue that insulates the company from short-term demand fluctuations.